On the day before Thanksgiving in the town of South Strabane, Pennsylvania, twenty-one-year-old Susan Rush left her job at the Murphy’s department store located at the Washington Mall and headed out toward her car. It was a little past six p.m., and presumably, Susan was looking forward to spending the holiday with her family. She would never get the chance.
On the morning of Thanksgiving Day—November 25th, 1976—Susan’s brother Gary had gotten an early start driving around the city looking for his missing sister. The family had become worried when she had failed to come home, and Gary was attempting to retrace her known movements.
At around nine a.m., he spotted her car parked along North Avenue, less than a mile from the mall where she worked. All the car doors were locked, but there was no sign of Susan. Gary contacted the authorities.
When officers arrived, they quickly discovered the body of Susan Rush in the trunk of her own vehicle. She had been raped, and strangled with a length of string or leather. She was clothed, though her sweater and pants were inside out.
Though the investigation into Susan’s murder hit a wall almost immediately, the chain of unsettlingly similar crimes that would plague Washington County, Pennsylvania continued into the following year, leading some detectives to theorize that a serial killer dubbed the Washington Strangler might be responsible, and that Barbara Jean Lewis and Susan Rush were only the first in his long list of victims.
Crime Immemorial 